


A Little Less ‘Black Lagoon,’ A Little More ‘Little Mermaid’

by Aubrie1234



Series: Don't Let Me Drown [1]
Category: Bandom, Fall Out Boy
Genre: 5-and-1, Brief appearances by Dallon and Brendon, Fluff and Humor, M/M, siren/merman au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-29
Updated: 2020-01-29
Packaged: 2021-02-27 20:40:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,621
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22469518
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aubrie1234/pseuds/Aubrie1234
Summary: Five times Patrick wanted to be himself and one time Pete helped him.
Relationships: Patrick Stump/Pete Wentz
Series: Don't Let Me Drown [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1616611
Comments: 2
Kudos: 21





	A Little Less ‘Black Lagoon,’ A Little More ‘Little Mermaid’

**One:**

Patrick liked the friends he had made in becoming something more, but he didn’t like the fame too much. He also didn’t like having to wear glasses but that wasn’t something he could control, now was it? Well, actually it was, but people would be a little freaked out if he decided to reenact Panic’s _Lying Is the Most Fun a Girl Can Have Without Taking Her Clothes Off_ by having a bowl of water on his head. He also wouldn’t even be able to walk at that point, so there wasn’t any use to doing it in the first place. Patrick sighed. Sometimes it sucked being a closeted merman.

“‘Trick!” Patrick braced himself and caught Pete when he came flying out of nowhere for a hug. They were on tour, this was nothing new, but if he didn’t brace himself Pete would knock him over if he wasn’t careful.

“Yeah, what is it?”

“I just got an awesome idea for something we could do onstage-”

“No.” Patrick shot it down immediately. Pete and ideas usually didn’t mix too well and gave everyone around him a headache, Patrick especially. His bullshit meter was usually pretty high but became shorter than he was when around Pete and that was saying something.

“You don’t even know-”

“I know enough to say no before something goes wrong.”

“Who says it’s gonna go wrong? Don’t you trust me?”

“I do, but your ideas usually end badly.”

“C’mon, ‘Trick, I promise it’s not gonna be that bad.” Patrick gave Pete a disbelieving look, even as Pete gave his most charming smile. Patrick sighed, rolling his eyes.

“Fine. What’s your idea?” Pete grinned wider.

“Y’know that thing we do sometimes when play _The Kids Aren’t Alright_ , where we’re leaning into each other? I wanna do that a little more and maybe try leaning into each other, back-to-back while we play.”

“Huh. That’s actually not too wild.” Pete gave Patrick a look and the younger man only smiled.

“But do you wanna try it out or not?” Pete asked. Patrick shrugged.

“Sure, but let’s not get too carried away, got it?”

“We won’t. Promise.” Pete pecked his cheek. Patrick grew red as Pete cackled and ran away. Sometimes he hated that man, and sometimes he loved him. Right now he just wanted to throttle Pete for messing with him.

* * *

**Two:**

Patrick both loved and hated the rain. The rain reminded him of home, but if he got too wet, he’d got down in a heap as his legs became his tail. That was something he didn’t want to happen. Again. (It was a long time ago when he was a kid, how was he supposed to know better?) At least he wasn’t alone in his rain antics, though, Pete seemed to hate the rain as much as he did. Another thing that seemed to make them so similar and alike even though they had little else in common. They huddled together under an umbrella while Andy and Joe ran to the bus, not afraid of the rain at all. Patrick wondered how different things would’ve been if he wasn’t a siren, then guessed they wouldn’t have changed much.

“C’mon, let’s try to get inside before we get too wet.” Pete bounded up the stairs into the bus first, leaving Patrick to close the umbrella and the door. After doing so, he grabbed a dish towel to wipe off the extra water on his face. Already he could feel the silent song of the water wash over his body, the aquatic part of himself wanting to come out and splash about in the rain.

 _But I wouldn’t make any friends that way, would I?_ he thought. He pressed the towel harder against his skin, trying to put himself in pain to make the feeling go away.

“Easy.” Patrick looked up. Pete was right in front of him, gently pulling the dish towel from his hands, “I mean, it’s just a little rain.”

“I thought you hated the rain.”

“I do, but you don’t have to rub your skin off if you don’t like it.” Pete started rubbing the water off his own face.

“There are some people who are terrified of water, you don’t know.”

“If you were that scared of water, you wouldn’t even wanna go out in it.” Pete gave him a small smile as he threw the towel away once he was done. He took Patrick’s hand, “Why don’t we go to the lounge and warm up while watching TV? That sound good to you?”

“Yeah.” Patrick nodded. He let Pete lead the way, tugging on his hand, and then they were sitting together on the couch, Patrick leaning into Pete’s shoulder. They weren’t boyfriends, not exactly, but sometimes it left like the line had to blur, like right now. Patrick wanted to tell Pete how much he loved him, but he was always so scared of how the other would react, so he said nothing. He also didn’t want to Pete know what he really was, so keeping his mouth shut was for the best.

“Get a room, guys!” Joe laughed upon seeing them. Patrick just gave him the bird and snuggled more into Pete’s side. If he ever had to tell his secret, though, he was almost certain Pete wouldn’t say a word. Almost.

* * *

**Three:**

Being a siren was different than being a merman, but the terms tended to be interchangeable for the most part. There really weren’t enough around to argue the points of difference between the two, but Patrick knew he was a siren. However, because he was the lead singer, he had to learn to keep his voice under control. It got ridiculous sometimes during their early days, when he forgot to keep his siren side out of things, but at least it was never during a concert. It was bad enough when the fans were trying to get close enough to touch you, it was worse when they were climbing over one another for more than that, but at least that had never happened. So yeah, he kept his voice in check a whole lot. The few times he’d let it slip was around the guys and that was during practice or when he was taking a bath, but he hadn’t let it slip in years.

“Patrick?” He felt Pete slip onto the couch and hug him from behind, since Patrick was working on his computer on the arm of the couch.

“Yeah?” Pete leaned his head into Patrick’s back.

“Could I-?”

“Of course.” Patrick felt Pete get comfortable and Patrick hummed. He knew Pete was going through something right now, even if he couldn’t tell what it was. There were so many things and sometimes, it was just out of nowhere and didn’t last for long. He always came to Patrick for comfort and the fedora-wearing man was always there for him. He was sure Pete was smiling as he listened to the humming.

“Could you sing it?” Patrick opened his mouth and sang quietly. He divided his attention between the computer and Pete as he worked on a new piece of music they’d been working on. It was after a few minutes of this mindless singing that he felt Pete grow still for a moment, and then the older man was hugging him harder. A hand came up to stroke through some of his hair and Patrick stopped moving.

“Pete?”

“Your voice, it’s really pretty.” Pete sounded dazed. Then his breath ghosted over the back of Patrick’s neck and he kissed the younger man’s hair. Patrick froze, realizing what was going on, and stopped making any kind of noise.

 _Get control of your voice, dumbass._ “Pete?” he tried again.

“Hmm?”

“Could you lean away for a sec?”

“Okay.” Once Pete had let go of him, Patrick turned around. There was a glassy, loving look in the elder’s eyes and Patrick winced. He said nothing more and just sat with Pete for a few moments until the look cleared up. Pete blinked when it was gone and glanced around, “What happened?”

“I think you just tuned out for a moment.” Patrick smiled, “You okay?”

“Yeah.” Pete nodded, “Thanks to you.” Pete leaned forward to hug Patrick again, resting his head under the younger’s shin. Patrick sighed. Reaching behind him, he grabbed the edge of the laptop, pulled it closed, and set it on the ground, focusing on helping Pete.

* * *

**Four:**

“How true do you think the story of the Little Mermaid is?”

“What?” Patrick looked up from tuning his guitar. The band was at practice and Joe had asked this out of nowhere. The curly-haired man shrugged.

“I was watching the movie with Marie the other day and I just wondered about it, y’know?”

“It’s just a story, dude.” Andy said, “And it’s not that close to the original story, either.”

“Yeah. I mean, it’s really cool that people would trade their voice for love, but how desperate would you be to do that? And as a princess no less.” Pete said.

“But the original story is worse.” Andy pointed out, “Haven’t you ever heard the original story?”

“Nope. Please enlighten us.” Joe sat back as much as he could on his stool. Patrick rolled his eyes as Andy described the differences in the original story and the Disney adaptation, going back to tuning his guitar. He’d seen the movie before and had been told the original story when he was a teenager. The story, as weird as it was, was true. It helped lead to the whole secret about mermaids and sirens, it was part of his history. Even though he wasn’t a descendant of the original Little Mermaid, other mermaids had fallen in love with humans and so had created hybrids like himself, not to mention when sirens decided to get in on the act. He didn’t know when Andy was done, but he looked up again when Pete began speaking.

“All the merpeople are selfless in this story. Why can’t humans be more like that? I mean, did the prince never even think that someone else saved him? Why didn’t he try asking?”

“We’re not analyzing stories again today, Pete.” Patrick said, “We need to get practicing.”

“Fine.” Pete went back to tuning his own instrument.

“But that doesn’t answer my question: was the story actually true or not?” Joe asked.

“Well, since we don’t know any mermaids, I don’t think the story is true.” Andy quipped, testing some of his drums.

“Hey, we know less about the ocean than we know about space, it’s possible they’re just living in places we haven’t explored yet.”

“Joe.” Patrick gave him a look.

“Okay, I’ll let it drop, but I still think it’s possible.” Patrick rolled his eyes again. He loved his friends, but sometimes he wished they wouldn’t get too close to the truth like this.

* * *

**Five:**

When he’s in the water, the temperature never really bothers him, but as a human, he always seems to be more sensitive to it. He may live in Chicago, but he _despises_ the cold and lake-effect weather sent his way. They had stopped in Chicago to visit their families before going on the rest of the tour and Patrick was forced to huddle in his clothes in his lonely apartment. He’d been to see his family earlier that week but now was taking time for himself and just trying to be warm, even though the AC was clearly putting out heat and cranked up to 80. He glared at the door when he heard someone knock. Getting up would force him to leave his warm spot and he really didn’t want to, but when the knock came again, he sighed.

“What?” he snapped as he opened the door. To his surprise, Pete was on the other side. Pete waved.

“Hey, ‘Trick. Mind if I come in?”

“Sure, sure, just don’t let cold into my apartment.” Patrick returned to the couch and found that his spot hadn’t had time to lose heat yet. As Patrick sighed and settled into his seat again, Pete closed the door before joining him. He was as bundled as Patrick was, if not more, and didn’t look like he was getting warm at all, shivering a little. Patrick leaned into him a little so they could share warmth.

“Thanks.” Pete murmured, “Don’t you have any blankets around here?”

“Yeah, but they’re in the closet.” Patrick glanced at Pete, “You grab one and run back here and we can get warm together.”

“Why me?”

“I’m not leaving my warm spot again.”

“Jerk.” Pete got up anyway and headed into a hallway. Patrick heard a door open and close before Pete returned with one of his blankets. They snuggled together under the large blanket. Pete glanced at the coffee table, where a TV remote rested, then up at the blank TV, “Are you gonna turn it on or what?”

“Don’t wanna move.”

“I’m not doing it again.”

“Me neither.”

“...We could just huddle for warmth and fall asleep or something.”

“Good plan.” Pete put an arm around Patrick under the cover and the smaller man closed his eyes, ducking his head to hide a smile. He wished it could stay like this forever, even if it was impossible.

* * *

**And One:**

Hotel nights were always a luxury Patrick savored. They were the only times on tour where he could relax and let out his merman self. He had to be careful, though because he was sharing a room with Pete and he didn’t want the older man to find out his secret. Pete, however, tended to take a lot of the hot water and Patrick disliked that. Sure, temperature may not have mattered much for him when in merman form but he still liked having warm water.

“Pete!” he knocked on the bathroom door, “When are you gonna be done?”

“In a bit!” Pete replied, not sounding sorry at all. Patrick lifted his glasses to rub his eyes.

“At least save some of the hot water for me!”

“Okay!” Patrick knew that was a lie but what else could he use as a legitimate excuse to make Pete take his bath faster? He knew it was a bath because there was no running water and Pete was still inside. Patrick still had his own bath to take and usually, this wouldn’t bother him, but the cold from going home was still making him cranky.

“Pete!”

“A few more minutes, ‘Trick!”

“If you don’t come out soon, I’m barging in there!”

“Patrick, c’mon!” The younger man was having none of this. He waited a minute or two before finally deciding that he’d had enough and went in. Pete made a squeak sound and tried to hide, but it was no use. Patrick stopped in the doorway, staring, and then started laughing. Pete lifted his head above the lip of the large tub and glared at Patrick. At the other end of the bathtub, hanging over the side a little, was a black shark tail but with scales.

“Oh my god I should’ve known!”

“What? What’s so funny?” Pete continued to glare, red in his face.

“You’re a merman! Like me!”

“WHAT?” Patrick wiped his eyes and sat on the lip of the tub. Pete had been trying to drain the water and wait to dry enough so that he could transform back, making the tub empty. Besides the tail, he had small indents on the sides of his chest, which Patrick knew to be gills, and webbed, clawed hands. The younger man reached down to grab one.

“Yeah. I’m as fishy as you are. Except I’m a siren.” Patrick smiled widely, “You have no idea how much relief I’m feeling, knowing about this.” Pete’s tail flopped for a moment as he stared at Patrick, then he smiled back.

“At least we don’t have to hide this from each other, right? I guess things make sense now, how you hated the rain and cold as much as I did. And those times when you were singing and I tuned out, that was-?”

“It was me. When I get distracted, I forget to control my voice a little.” Patrick was sheepish.

“I bet being a siren is a lot better than being a merman.” Pete said.

“It’s really not.” Patrick looked away. Pete frowned.

“Something wrong?” He squeezed Patrick’s hand.

“A little. When I thought you were just human, I was afraid to say anything, because I wanted to keep my secret, but now...” Patrick bit his lip. Pete’s eyes softened and he sat up. To Patrick’s surprised, Pete leaned up to kiss his lips, more of a peck than anything, but it was enough.

“That what you wanted?”

“Y-yeah.” Patrick was red, “I love you.”

“I love you too.” Pete gave his a small kiss again, “Always have, always will, no matter whether we’re the same species or not. I wouldn’t care if you were a siren and I was human, I still would’ve loved you. Now, you wanna join me for my bath?” Patrick blushed.

“Can that tub even hold both of us?” Pete shrugged.

“Only one way to find out.” With a mischievous smile, Pete tugged Patrick into the tub with a yelp. The water was gone for the most part, so Patrick didn’t have to fear getting his clothes too wet, and he glared at Pete, who just grinned. The younger man sighed.

“Promise me you won’t look while I take off my clothes, okay? And be careful with my tail, I’m poisonous.”

“I promise and I won’t touch you.” Patrick climbed out of the tub and began taking his clothes off. Pete leaned against the side of the tub, blindly using his tail to turn the water back on. Eventually it was turned off and he felt Patrick climb into the tub with him, but he didn’t open his eyes until Patrick said he could. He didn’t move as he opened his eyes, seeing Patrick’s bright yellow tail with blue streaks resting on his body, having not been there seconds before. Patrick’s tail was smaller but it clearly made up for it with being poisonous somehow, yet was long enough to hang over the side of the bathtub. Pete smiled as Patrick blushed.

“You look beautiful.” He took Patrick’s hand and tugged the siren to his side so they were laying the same way, tails touching and scales rubbing, “I know the bright colors mean you’re poisonous, but how? Do you bite?” Patrick blushed harder.

“It’s the scales. They’re hooked.” Patrick took Pete’s hand and guided the older merman to brushing the scales. Pete could feel the hooks, sharp but curled to the side, so they only poked you if you hit them just right, like brushing the wrong way.

“Ever had to use ‘em?”

“Once.” Patrick winced, “I don’t wanna talk about it.” Pete nodded and put his arms around Patrick to keep him close and warm.

“Guys?” There was a knock at the door from Joe. Pete and Patrick shared a glance.

“Yeah?” Patrick raised his voice.

“Is Pete in there too?” asked Andy.

“Yeah.” Pete answered.

“...Don’t tell me you guys were fucking?”

“NO!” Patrick squeaked. Pete chuckled.

“No, we weren’t. Wish it, but no.” Pete said.

“Then what are you guys doing?” Joe tried the doorknob.

“Wait-!” Patrick froze up when the door opened. Joe and Andy stood there. Pete gave a wave.

“Hey guys.”

“...Not even gonna ask about this.” Andy closed the door. Patrick made a distressed noise, which turned happy when Pete kissed him again.

* * *

**Epilogue:**

Dallon sat in the jacuzzi, idly reading as his green and white tail curled slightly around him, the caudal fin hanging over the side. Being part clownfish, when he allowed himself to become his merman self, he gained a few colors on his face reminiscent of his makeup (something he’d been meaning to show Brendon so he could wear it more often, he didn’t think the singer had seen the dots on his cheeks before), though it was only a small change. He was lucky to have been able to build a large enough space in his own house to hold himself and his tail, Breezy too if she wanted to join him. No one was allowed to disturb him in here, it was his safe space. Very few knew what he really was and that was limited to his family, Breezy, Amelie, and Knox. They hadn’t shown any signs of being merpeople, but who knew? They could just be late bloomers. As it was, when he heard footsteps coming downstairs, he didn’t think much of it at first.

“Hey, Dal, I’ve got-” It was Brendon, throwing open the door like he always did, being his dramatic little self. Dallon’s head shot up and Brendon’s voice cut off in surprise. They stared at each other for a few minutes before Dallon’s flight-or-fight response kicked in and he tried to dive in the jacuzzi, his book flying out of range of the water. He hit his head on the bottom and cursed loudly, unable to be heard except for the stream of bubbles that came to the surface. Holding his head, he lifted the upper part of it out of the water, glaring at Brendon while his tail twitched, flicking a little in anger and fear. Brendon, who was left speechless at what he was seeing, seemed to get the hint and slowly closed the door. With his luck, Dallon was worried Brendon wouldn’t be able to keep the secret.

And that’s why, days later, Dallon announced he was leaving Panic! At The Disco.

**Author's Note:**

> I've always wanted to do a siren/merman AU with the Bandom and this is what happened. I wrote this in like what, two days? Again? I wanna do more with this but with other guys, like maybe one with MCR later. Just keep an eye out.
> 
> Also, I understand mermaids and sirens are different beings but in this AU they're very similar. Only difference is how a siren's voice can hypnotize most anything. Hope this makes sense.


End file.
